


E.Nigma P.I.

by Dino_Cattivo



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1920s, Alternate Universe - Detectives, Alternate Universe - Noir, Detective Noir, Detectives, Gen, Private Investigators
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-29
Updated: 2020-08-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:15:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26181010
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dino_Cattivo/pseuds/Dino_Cattivo
Summary: All my ideas and takes onbadlemonadeidea of Private Investigator Edward Nigma fromtumblr.Edward has quit Riddler and now tries to make a living as P.I. struggling as he tries to stay afloat and toes the lines of the law in Gothom of the 1920s.
Relationships: Tim Drake & Edward Nygma
Comments: 4
Kudos: 17





	E.Nigma P.I.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm really exciting to get to write something for this amazing idea.I started with the [first prompt](https://enigmainvestigations.tumblr.com/post/626271280691396608/prompt-the-fire) and really hope I could do it some justice. 
> 
> As always I'm open for comments, suggestion and tips of any kind.

“Good afternoon, I’m calling in reference to your company's advertisement published in the Gotham Morning yesterday...yes that’s the one...yes I see myself as capable enough to solve the problem and would gladly offer my services...absolutely, I will get it done in no time, I’m a professional after all… no, I’m nothing like _them_ I’m a licensed Private investigator....the names Nigma. Edward Nigma...can you hear me?...hello?... **hellooo? Damn”**

Edward huffed in annoyance as he hung up the phone and took the rumbled newspaper from under his arm, it was folded so the requests for help were on the front. He scanned the rows upon rows of messages, skipping over the ones he had already called and crossed out and cursed his bad eyesight as he had trouble scanning the small print as quickly as he wanted in the dim light of this rainy afternoon. He finally found another advertisement on the very bottom which looked like they could be in desperate need of his services. It was kind of a long shot with everyone hanging up on him the moment they heard his name all afternoon but he was willing to try.

He clamped the telephone against his shoulder to have one hand to hold the newspaper close to his face in hope of higher visibility and the other free to use the rotary dial. But he only made it to the second number before the constant peeping informed him that the change he had fed the payphone had just run out. He grumbled but dutifully rummaged through his pocket not yet ready to give up but came up with just a few dimes the rest already spent in this endeavor. The change was just enough to get tomorrow's newspaper which meant he would go to bed hungry again but sacrifices needed to be made. As long as his body kept functioning and his mind wasn’t impaired he had his priorities. 

He pocketed his cash again, already dreading the next rent as he looked out of the telephone booth and into the grey wet streets. There was no way he wouldn’t end up drenched to the bone upon arrival at his humble office. He really wished he hadn’t had to walk this far just to make a call but there was no phone in the part of town- something about vandalism and thievery in the slums, who could have expected that. But the bad reputation of his neighborhood was actually the reason why he was able to afford an office at all… and the fact that he didn’t have an apartment but lived in his workspace. 

But with weather like this he wished he could have made the calls without leaving his desk but renting a phone was expensive and he did neither know 5 to 10 other people to share one with nor did he wish to have loose acquaintances barge in demanding to use the phone all the time. Back in the old days when he had still been the Riddler things had been different. Back then he was surrounded by people, most of them a bit dull but smart enough to trust his decisions and plans listening to his every word. Not that he would have to share a phone with any of them back then as he had been swimming in money.

How much easier that time had been. No struggling, no fighting to stay afloat. It would be so simple to make his life just a bit less painful. Just _one little heist_ , in and out, no one would ever know it was him and if he made sure no one was hurt the Bat’s focus would stay on the more bloody villains. It didn’t have to be something big or extremely clever just something to tide him over till he got a case that finally paid. 

But no he couldn’t do that. He had sworn to stay away from that life. Going cold turkey was the only way to make sure he didn’t fall back into a life of crime. At least that was what his mandatory therapist said. Which was stupid he wasn’t addicted after all. He was Edward Nigma. He was more than able to step away any time he wanted because he was that much of a genius. 

So his decision to not just rob the tempting jewelry store across the street was just that. His choice. Not because anyone had the power to tell him what to do but because he really didn’t want to get back into that lifestyle. Not after the shape, he ended up in the last time he got too arrogant and underestimated how quickly things went south on the wrong side of the law. The drawback of his sharp mind was that he was more than able to gather the factors and calculate the odds ending up in such a situation again and he really didn’t like his chances.

So honest work it was at least for now. Which would actually be much easier if anyone was willing to pay him anything for doing his job. At this point, he would even look for a stupid cat even if he knew that it obviously had been napped for the meat factory across town like all the other animals which suddenly went missing in recent months.

He pulled up his collar glad he at least put his hat on to keep his hair dry and ventured out into the rain. It was very easy to notice when people finally recognized him as they froze up, moved against the wall, or heisted to the other side of the road. Luckily the automobiles were slow enough they could break before hitting them. Edward really didn’t want to be held responsible for people's own stupidity. Not with the police already being on his back distrusting his change of heart.

Suddenly a thin gangly man stepped out of an alley, nearly bumping into Edward who stepped past him as the man froze up most likely in fear. He really hated them all.

He was already turning the corner when he heard hurried footsteps following after him and braced for a fight. For some reason, people sometimes found the courage to try and start conflicts with him either verbally or with a fist. To no one's surprise, they usually started to run when Edward started to give back the favor but it was rather annoying still.

It was the gangly man from before huffing and puffing as if he had run a marathon and not just followed Edward’s brisk walk down the street. It was rather sad that apparently, Edward’s reputation had become so bad that even people like that tried to mess with him now.

“You are that Nigma guy right?”

Edward already bristled because had this guy no manners? Even if you wanted to fight you could do it with some class and not as if you had been raised in a barn. Gotham didn’t even have barns, for god's sake.

“ **Good afternoon to you too** . People would usually find it rather accustom to first _introduce themself_ before starting to ask stupid questions but if you have to know, yes I’m _that Nigma guy_.” 

The insult went straight over the head of the fidgeting man.

“That's great. I was on my way to you...or rather your office. I mean there was no way I knew that you would be here. It would be really creepy if I knew that. So your office. Because I need to talk to you. Well, I’m talking right now. Actually quite a lot. Sorry, I tend to babble when I get nervous. And I’m nervous. Very nervous if you couldn’t tell. Because I have never done this before, ask someone to be a detective for me.”

_What did Edward do to deserve having someone like this talk to him?_ He could feel his intelligence level drop just by listening. It had to be all the people he killed. Or rather who was killed on his command. Karma always seemed to be so grossed by that. What a pain. 

“Private investigator.”

“What,” the man blinked incomprehensible at him.

“I’m a private investigator.”

“So you don't do detectiving for people.”

Ahh, wasn’t it tempting to just say no, end this painful conversation and move on with his life? It was very unlikely that a man with the brain the size of an ant had something worthwhile he wanted to have _detectived_. But he had tempted fate when he told himself he would sink as low as looking for a cat and so this right now was his punishment for that.

“Yes, I do that from time to time.”

He inclined his head in the vague direction of his office because he would suffer through this while standing in the rain. The man started following him, making Edward slow his step multiple times when he sounded like he would collapse any second. They were both drenched when Edward unlocked the door to his office. 

He didn’t have the money to get a kitchenette installed yet as he had just moved in a few weeks prior so he couldn’t offer his client tea but he could at least give the man a mostly clean towel. If the man died of hypomania he wouldn’t be able to pay Edward after all.

“So how can I help you Mr…?”

“The name’s Charles Felten, Sir, but just Charles is fine."

“Your problem _Mr. Felten_ ,” Edward asked impatiently, unwilling to waste any more of his valuable time one a man to whom manners were a foreign concept.

“Ahh yes yes sure. My place burned down. One evening everything was fine and then, puff everything going up in smoke. The whole apartment building. Gone just like that. Faulty wiring the fire inspector said. Ha. Can you believe it? **Faulty wiring.** I have lived in the building for 15 years now and there was any trouble with the wiring before. I tell you there is something fishy. _Very fishy_ . But no one believed me saying I was paranoid. **Me! Paranoid!** So I told myself I would get proof. But I’m not really good at that detectiving stuff so here I’m.”

“I see. So you want me to investigate the events of a house fire.”

“Yes and get proof and stuff. I don’t have much money right now but if we get the one responsible I would get compensation.”

It was more than unlikely that Edward would get to see any of that money. People were so used to worming their way out of tricky situations. And especially in a case like this, it was hard to nail down a culprit to take responsibility.

He still asked for the addressee but to no one's surprise, it was in the middle of the slums. 

Really it was just as likely that the fire had been caused by faulty wiring or a gas explosion. Edward knew how the conditions in that part of town were. He grew up in it after all. Either old buildings on the edge of falling apart which had not been looked after for years or quickly constructed concrete buildings pulled up in a botched job with the money put in their own pocket. No one cared and no one to blame. If people had a problem with it they could move somewhere else, not that they had the money to do so. And any official complaint got shot down as the officials were easily encouraged to look the other way with a few bills. 

Edward was tight on cash but even with his limited options, he had made sure to inspect every inch of the building before moving in to make sure it was solid. Old, dirty, and a shithole but not so bad the roof would collapse over his head. 

But it was a job and even if it didn’t pay well it would at least pay something and it was not as if he had many other options. People were still wary and didn’t usually come to him with work, and his plan to go to the people instead was also failing. So the least he could hope for was that after he finished the job successfully because he would, Mr. Felton would get the word out and more people would overlook his past and consider hiring him. 

This whole situation was an absolute shitshow. When you did crime people screamed at you for being a coward and taking the easy way out, demanding you do something legit but if you gave up everything you had and lost all support to just do exactly that people turned their back at you not even interested in offering you work. No wonder the crime rate was still at an all-time high. People were desperate and fell into crime, maybe for life, maybe just a small job, just to get enough cash not to starve. But if you got caught? It was over. Once in the system, always in the system and there was no way out anymore because you had no other options left. 

But Edward refused to be just a number in the statistics of repeat offenders. He was Edward Nigma after all, former Riddler, genius, better and more cunning than anyone else. If someone could pull himself up from the filth of the slum it would be him. He had always come up with ways to overcome hurdles no one else would even attempt to climb. 

And archiving this goal would keep him busy and his mind occupied. Ever since he joined the hoard of sheep in their mundane everyday life he had become restless. His brain had become used to running on overdrive to come up with plans, keep track of every possibility, and outsmart everyone else. Now his mind was starved for something clever to do. 

Sometimes when things got extremely dull he came up with all the easy ways he could rob the store he was standing in waiting for checkout or how many security flaws the police station had and how easy it would be to take it hostage, when he asked Gorden if there was some work for him. He always stopped himself before he acted but sometimes he got really close.

His therapist said it was his inner demons coming out and he had to fight them. They were an idiot after all so no wonders there. Truth be told he was just so bored. But they didn’t understand how dull it was for a man like Edward to put oneself in the mind of a sheep, going through everyday life without ever hoping to achieve brilliance. 

Edward was slowly losing his mind trapped in the dullness. There was no challenge, no sense of achievement or victory if he managed to crack an extremely hard problem. Just monotony. Which was why he had become a P.I. and started his agency in the first place, hoping to be faced with mystery and impossible to solve questions. But so far they had been utterly disappointing. 

Sometimes they even amplified his boredom. In his last case, it had been so obvious that he was cheating on her. Edward could tell just by smelling the cheap soap the hotels near the red light district used on him. It had kept him occupied for all of 3 seconds but then the wife wanted proof and Edward had spent four days with a camera waiting till he cheated again, all while coming up with very creative and painful ways he could castrate the husband.

It had become so bad even his body was affected by his tormented mind. His sleep schedule had become all messed up to the point where he barely got two hours a night but he just couldn’t rest, his mind just to awake and focused. He needed a good mystery to exhaust himself to be able to fall into bed and truly rest. 

At this point he was desperate enough he would even be happy to face off against the Bat. The man may be horrible and a total cheater, who kicked the riddles Edward came up with his steel-toed boots but at least he wasn’t as stupid as the rest of humanity. If he just stuck by the rules a match between them could even be fun. At least until the punches and kicks started and Edward got dragged back to Arkham.

But now that Edward was no longer a criminal there were no more mind games between Batman and himself. He should be glad that this meant there were also no punches, his delicate skin brushed way too easily, but still it was kinda rude that the Bat just dropped him like that. Sure there were bigger fishes to fry now and more villains to keep an eye one however Edward felt kinda neglected now that he had been forgotten so quickly.

They hadn’t had something special like Batman and the Joker did, which thank god because that was just weird and absolutely disgusting at times. However, they had been something, enemies, or perhaps rivals. Be it as it may, Edward was the only one who really challenged the mind of the Bat in ways no other in the rouge gallery could. To just be forgotten like that feel...he wanted to punch the Bat. Or rather come up with a trap to do the beating for him. The body armor was just unfair in that aspect. 

He took his mind off the Bat as his thoughts started spiraling in less than lawful directions. It had gotten so easy to get distracted now that fatigue was catching up with him. Not that anyone noticed with his fast mind. He had already finished his thought progress before Mr. Felten finished gesturing as he emphasized his point about being able to pay Edward later.

“Fine, I will do it. But **I** will contact **you** , not the other way round.”

Which led him to now, standing in front of the ruins of a building huddling into his coat for warmth. It had stopped raining but the air was cold but unusually clean. He ignored the sign the police had put up marking the area off-limits- a mere suggestion- and stepped closer mindful of how unsound the structure had become. His client had lived on one of the top floors, so Edward didn’t want to venture up if he didn’t absolutely have to and rather stuck to inspecting the ground for sights of tampering.

He carefully maneuvered through the rubble and ashes, his shoes and trousers would need an extensive wash after this if they were salvageable at all. He was leaning down when something shiny caught his eyes. He had his gloves on because he wasn’t an idiot and he didn’t want to contaminate the scene of the suspected crime. As he brushed away the layer of ash he revealed the eyes of a broken doll. Not what he had been looking for.

“Kinda sad isn’t it?”

He jumped in the air, stumbling as he whirled around to find whoever the voice so close behind him belonged to. Perched in one of the broken windows of the structure, mindless of the instability was a child in bright colors peering down at him.

Edward took everything back. Batman, and also Robin were still the worst and he would be happy if he never had to see them ever again. One day he would get a heart attack. **Ha** , _how would that look Mr. No-killing-rule_? 

At least it was the skinny newish kid, the one Edward hated the least of all the Robins. And yes Edward knew there were different ones and could also roughly pinpoint when Batman had switched to a newer model. He was not an idiot after all and kids didn’t just shrink 10 centimeters overnight. He may not know who Batman was **yet** but he knew that the man had a serious problem with collecting kids. 

This one _unlike his boss_ didn’t tend to cheat but stuck to the rules and tried to solve Edward’s riddles best he could, which he did remarkably well for his estimated young age. And he sometimes even came up with some riddles of his own he asked once they were on their way to Arkham, and they were actually quite entertaining unlike the stupid jokes and puns the first Robin presented him with. Plus his absolute favorite part about this particular Robin was that he tried to reason instead of going straight for the kick to the shin like his predecessor. _Who just did that?_ The second Robin didn’t even have the audacity to listen to his riddle to the very end before attacking and then just excused it by calling it street smart. _Could you believe it?_

But the biggest difference and proof of superior intelligence this Robin had above all the other ones was that he had pants. **Pants!** In Gotham’s cold weather where people shivered in coats, he came up with the s _uperb idea of wearing pants an unrivaled genius never seen before_. Really when Edward one day got behind who was hiding under the cowl the first thing he would do was calling Child protective services.

“What are you doing here?”

“What no riddle for me today?”

Edward would be delighted if the kid was really disappointed but as it was he just growled at the boy. Acting as if he didn’t know that a strict no- riddles policy had been one of his probation restrictions. _Did he really think Edward would fall for such a cheap trick?_ Looks like Robin had lost his edge after Edward had stopped challenging him.

“Don’t act like I’m stupid. Do **you** really think you can just **trick me** into going back to Arkham?”

“What,” squeaked the kid nearly falling off his perch in the window.

“The probation requirements?”

There was a confused silence till it seemed to click and the kid gestured in a flurry of motion making Edward step back to not get a child to the face when the boy lost his balance. It seems like the Bat didn’t always share all the details with his protegee. 

“ **Nonono I would never.** That would be really stupid actually. Do you know how high the rate for repeat offenders in Arkham is? Of course, you do, you are the Riddler after all. And combined with the high escape rate it is a recipe for disaster. Sending you there would be like...like turning you into a criminal myself. Very counterproductive.”

Wow, it looked like the small squid had grasped the major fault in their justice system the big shots had overlooked for years now allowing the situation to just get worse and worse.

“I find what you did quite remarkable, going honest I mean. Leaving behind all you know and starting over. It was a big surprise but in a good way.”

  
  


Edward felt something in his chest size up at the words and he caught his mind trying to come up with a clever way to change the topic. 

“So what are you doing here?”

“Same as you I guess? I found this whole thing kinda strange so I asked Batman to investigate and now I’m getting the lay of the land. When I saw you here I thought I would check in on you, see how you have been.”

_Was it kinda pathetic that the first person requiring after his wellbeing was this kid who worked for his enemy?_

“Fine.”

He didn't feel like complaining about his struggles. Or rather he felt very much like complaining about the stupidity of people and the broken system but the kid would not be able to help and just venting his frustration was not worth the embarrassment if Batman heard about it. 

“That's good.”

Edward thought that was it. Pleasantries had been exchanged, there had been no blood sheet and now they would go their separate ways and poke in the ruins, preferable without being crushed by rubble. But there was a cloud of ash as Robin landed beside him making him cough and glare.

“Sooooo?”

“What?”

He knew indulging the kid was a bad idea.

“You work on the case, we work on the case, I thought we could work together you know. Share information, getting this done quicker. You finish your job and we get _vengeance_.”

“ **NO!** ”

Okay, he didn’t hate the kid, and he would say at this point if Robin was on fire and he had a glass of water he wouldn’t drink it out of spit but they weren’t friends, or colleagues or anything. Heck, he still expected Batman to show up any second and drag him back to Arkham on some technicality, and with how his relationships to the rouge gallery had fallen apart when he left he wouldn’t get out of there unscattered. 

So no he didn’t fancy working with the Bats. They should do their thing as he did his. Seeing who completed the task faster. Ha, it would almost be like their rivalry in the past just with a lot less fist to the gut if Batman should cheat and instead just with empty pockets on Edwards part.

“Absolutely not. Run along.”

Despite his vehement protests, he ended up with a colorful shadow following along as he investigated, looking over his shoulder, making comments and just being someone Edward could bounce ideas off, to order his thoughts instead of furiously scribbling into his notebook. 

It was kinda nice he had to admit. Having someone acknowledging his intellect and appreciating his mind. He didn’t really care that Robin was using his brain because just as he gained information from Edward he freely shared his own intel, talking about police reports and other resources Edward had not yet established a link to get his hand on. Edward was calmer than usual even if he gestured wide in his explanations. His body was in action but his mind was focused and sharp.

And then Batman stepped out of the shadows making Edward stop mid-sentence as he turned and strode away- he was not fleeing he just had...important business. He left a stunned and shooting Robin behind. **Damn you, Batman**.


End file.
